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Australian Police Suspect Foreigners Paying Criminals to Perpetrate Antisemitic Attacks

Members of the Jewish community and supporters gather for a protest rally against rising antisemitism at Martin Place in Sydney, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: AAP Image/Steven Saphore via Reuters Connect

Law enforcement in Australia has started an investigation into the origins behind a spree of recent antisemitic crimes, announcing they suspect individuals outside the country have coordinated the campaign of hate.

On Wednesday, Australia Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Reece Kershaw said his department believes that “criminals-for-hire may be behind some incidents” and that they have begun investigating “who is paying those criminals, where those people are, whether they are in Australia or offshore, and what their motivation is.”

Police have identified six attacks in Sydney alone since November 2024, including cars set on fire accompanied with anti-Israel graffiti and synagogues vandalized with swastikas. In Melbourne, arson attacks also targeted Jewish politician Josh Burns’ office in June and the Adass synagogue in December.

A December report from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) said that the country’s Jews experienced more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, compared to 495 in the prior 12 months. The number of antisemitic assaults rose from 11 in 2023 to 65 in 2024. In the seven weeks following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitic acts in Australia rose by 591 percent according to the ECAJ.

In a statement, Kershaw said on Tuesday that police sought to determine “whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs.” He added, “We are looking at if — or how — they have been paid, for example in cryptocurrency, which can take longer to identify.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also described the government’s suspicions about the nature of the attacks. He said that it looked as though “some of these are being perpetrated by people who don’t have a particular issue, aren’t motivated by an ideology, but are paid actors.”

Efforts to counter antisemitic crime in Australia have intensified following a Tuesday act of arson at a Sydney child care center located close to a synagogue. The criminal also left antisemitic graffiti before starting the fire. This prompted the New South Wales Police to double their staffing on Strike Force Pearl, a unit created to counter hate crimes targeting Jews.

On Tuesday, Strike Force Pearl arrested a suspect in a Jan. 11 arson attack against a Sydney synagogue and announced they expected to arrest his accomplice soon.

Kershaw also named the AFP’s divisions tasked with investigating antisemitism and their areas of focus.

“The AFP has established Special Operation Avalite to target high-harm antisemitism. AFP-led Operation Ardvarna is targeting the display of prohibited symbols — both operations have made arrests and more are expected soon,” Kershaw said. “Special Operation Avalite has received 166 reports of crime since it was established in December last year. Of those reports, many are duplicates, some are already under investigation by our state counterparts and some don’t meet the threshold of a crime.”

Kershaw said that “Special Operation Avalite is investigating 15 serious allegations. All lines of inquiry are open to the investigations — including what anonymizing technology, such as dedicated encrypted communication devices, have been used to commit these crimes.”

Australia’s National Cabinet met in a snap meeting on Tuesday and agreed to establish a national database to track antisemitic crimes. “The purpose of one national reporting system is to better inform and coordinate responses to antisemitic incidents,” Albanese said.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton expressed skepticism about Albanese’s response to the attacks. “If the prime minister thinks that he’s going to get the Australian public off his back and that he’ll have some reprieve from the media by holding this meeting, he doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation,” he said. “This is a national crisis. We are having rolling terrorist attacks in our community, and the prime minister is being dragged kicking and screaming to hold a meeting of our nation’s leaders.”

On Jan. 14, the Anti-Defamation League released the results of a new global survey into antisemitic attitudes by country. The group found that 20 percent of Australians — 4.2 million people — embrace antisemitic attitudes, agreeing with at least six antisemitic tropes.

The survey showed a gender disparity in hate, with 27 percent of men embracing such views compared to only 14 percent of women. Australians over 50 showed the lowest propensity for hate against Jews, with 13 percent harboring antisemitic views, whereas 33 percent of those 33-49 and 21 percent of those 18-34 expressed support for anti-Jewish bigotry.

The post Australian Police Suspect Foreigners Paying Criminals to Perpetrate Antisemitic Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.

The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.

They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.

Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.

Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.

Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.

The post Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip

Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS

i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.

The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.

Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.

He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.

The post Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

i24 News – Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, the New York Times reported on Saturday citing unnamed Iranian officials. It is understood the Ayatollah fears he could be assassinated in the coming days.

Khamenei reportedly mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications.

Khamenei has designated three senior religious figures as candidates to replace him as well as choosing successors in the military chain of command in the likely event that additional senior officials be eliminated.

Earlier on Saturday Israel confirmed the elimination of Saeed Izadi and Bhanam Shahriari.

Shahriari, head of Iran’s Quds Force Weapons Transfer Unit, responsible for arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, was killed in an Israeli airstrike over 1,000 km from Israel in western Iran.

The post Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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